


Healthy Against My Will

by panther



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Post - Deathly Hallows, St Mungo's Hospital
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2014-11-29
Packaged: 2018-02-27 11:25:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2691143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panther/pseuds/panther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cho is old, ill with cancer, and then Harry Potter's house elf turns up and takes her away. Harry wants to heal her. Cho is not sure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Healthy Against My Will

When the House-Elf appears in her living room Cho simply stares at it. She has not seen one in decades, in fact make that over a century. 

"Lady was once Miss Cho Chang?"

"Yes?"

"Master Harry Potter would like Lady who was once Miss Cho Chang to come with Tinky to his home."

The elf says it all very fast and it takes Cho a moment to process it. She would to apparate, or as close to it as elves do, and leave her home. Her breathes are harder to get at the thought. The illness has taken its hold. She cannot afford the treatment that might give her more time, and perhaps even cure her. However, it would mean seeing people and she has not done that in a while. Twenty seven days but she is not counting. Her granddaughter came but...she did not stay long. Then there is the fact that Cho knows herself. If she did not go she would spend the rest of her days wondering what Harry Potter wanted with her after all these years. 

"Ok. Give me a moment. I need to get my stick and....my wand." Cho mumbles, getting gingerly to her feet and taking a moment before slowly making her way to the table where her wand sits and which her walking stick is propped against. 

The elf is by her side a moment later and tilts its head in question. She nods and a moment later she is wheezing over her stick in a strange room. 

"Take it easy, old friend. Here, let me sit you down."

Harry Potter. Not a man Cho ever thought she would see again. She finds herself sitting on a weathered red sofa in a large living room with a burning fire and pictures of the Potter children and grandchildren on the wall above it. Two armchairs sit on either side of the sofa with a coffee table in between and in one corner she sees a bookshelf filled with ornaments and a few books while the other has a muggle TV and entertainment centre. 

"Some tea perhaps, Tinky?"

"Yes, Harry."

The elf disappears with a crack and that brings Cho's attention back onto Harry who has taken a seat in the armchair to her right. 

"It is good to see you, Cho." He says with a warm smile. He is wearing jeans and a red jumper that is really far too big for him. His hair has turned gray and his scar is hardly there yet somehow he looks just as Cho remembers him. His smile and his bright eyes have never changed.

"Hello, Harry. I am afraid I do not understand why you have brought me here."

"I learned from Michael that you are ill. I want to help you, Cho. No one deserves to die because they cannot afford the things that could save them. I donate to St Mungos, you know. I have ever year since the war ended. You did not fight a war to die from this disease." He states passionately and Cho hardly knows where to begin. 

"I...I don't know what you're talking about."

"I know the treatment that you need, Cho. And I am going to pay for it. I'm going to get you better."

Cho is flabbergasted. "Harry, you must know a hundred people who fought in the war and then got ill."

"Not so many that I knew well. Not so many that led good and decent lives after the war. Not so many that are going to die over _money_." He all but spits out the last word and Cho is reminded of the stories and rumours that he grew up surrounded by everything while having nothing for himself. She remembers the rags he wore at Hogwarts and the way he was so happy to help his friends. Still, she cannot justify his offer.

"Harry, please."

"Cho, I have spent months looking over the details, finding ways to make sure that no one will know and come knocking on my door for the same. You have lived through enough and you deserve to see many more generations of your family at your feet. Go out and see friends and meet with us at the pub."

Cho laughs, laughs so hard her lungs hurt, and then she can only smile sadly. "Harry, my family don't visit me. I don't go anywhere. I'm not worth your money. I appreciate the offer. Truly I really do but ....I can't."

Ginny Weasley, or Potter shifts into the room, quietly as if she wants to remain unseen. Her red hair is greying now and she doesn't have the same spring in her step. Cho's eyes find hers and then there is darkness.

The distraction was all Harry needed. 

*

Bright lights and a steady chatter bring Cho back around. When she tries to sit up she realises she is spelled in place from the waist down and there is a quill and a piece of parchment hovering at the bottom of her bed constantly taking notes. St Mungos then. Harry got her. Merlin.

The quill scribbles faster and a moment later a Healer enters the room. 

"Ah you are awake. Wonderful. Well, the surgeries and such were a full success I am sure you will be thrilled to know. If everything remains stable then you will be out by dinner time. The tumours were relatively easy to remove and then your lungs simple to repair. We also repaired the cartilage in your knee. That may feel stiff and awkward for a few days post surgery. Of course, we will need to see you eat something before we release you so I have requested a simple lunch for you. Do you have any questions?" The healer is young and rushing and Cho wonders how many other patients she has to get around. Healing as gone out of fashion as a career as it were so there is a shortage in Britain. 

"I feel fine. Why am I held down?"

"Many patients panic when they awake from invasive surgery like we had to perform. It is complex magic and we don't want anyone springing up and hurting themselves. Also, given the treatment in your knees we will want to ease you into walking without your cane again."

"I can walk without it already?" 

"Of course. Everything is sorted." The healer beams. Beams too much for Cho's liking. Having lived through the war and Cedric and everything that happened sometimes people just seem too happy and too innocent. Sure, that is what she fought for but still. She wonders if they can ever truly appreciate what they have, what she gave them. Harry died to give them that. 

Harry. Harry who paid for all of this. Harry who _knocked her out and did it against her will_. By all rights she should be outraged and call the Aurors. The list of things he did wrong could lead for miles. Yet he is Harry Potter and he did a good deed and no one would ever go after him for it. Cho feels both grateful for his help and outraged and the way he did it. It is a strange, angry, happy, confused feeling. 

He both violated her and helped her. All with St Mungos failing to say a damn word. The healer just beams and nods and leaves the room promising lunch and the parchment continues to record all of Cho's vitals. It will record the anger and then the calm relief when Cho realises she is not coughing, not in pain, not struggling to breath at all. 

Where does she even begin to deal with it all? When her children and grandchildren finally turn up and ask her what happened? When she goes for her own shopping and doesn't have to stop and take a break? If she had a choice to no longer be disabled it was a decision for _her_. She tried to refuse. He didn't listen. Yet now she finds herself better and happy and grateful yet angry. 

She decides to wait. Her lunch comes. She is signed out. She goes home and she sits down to think about how she handles thing. Things can be handed on a silver platter but that does not mean the person handing it over is not guilty.


End file.
